April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

tearing aside the façade of rapacious power. The canker here is not the far
right but the paper-thin liberalism of those who guard the limits of free
speech. The New York Times has distinguished itself by spinning and
censoring the WikiLeaks material. “We are taking all [the] cables to the
administration,” said Bill Keller, the editor, “They’ve convinced us that
redacting certain information would be wise.” In an article by Keller,
Assange is personally abused. At the Columbia School of Journalism on 3
February, Keller said, in effect, that the public could not be trusted with
the release of further cables. This might cause a “cacophony”. The
gatekeeper has spoken.
The heroic Bradley Manning is kept naked under lights and cameras 24
hours a day. Greg Barns, director of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, says
the fears that Julian Assange will “end up being tortured in a high security
American prison” are justified. Who will share responsibility for such a
crime?
www.zcommunications.org
South Africa: The history and character of `black economic empowerment'
Dale McKinley 10 March 2011
Amid all the usual political propaganda and grandstanding at the African
National Congress (ANC)’s 99th anniversary rally in Polokwane on January
8, 2011, it was none other than ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius
Malema who came up with the most honest statement of the day.
Defending himself against charges that he and his ANC Youth League
cronies were continuing to economically benefit from associated
businesses awarded government tenders; he argued that business is
intrinsically elitist. As such, Malema claimed, “BEE will never be broad” –
and in this rare case, he got it right.
To understand why though, we first need to have a clear understanding of
the core historical context within which "black economic empowerment"
(or BEE in South Africa) was incubated and subsequently pursued. If we go
back to the beginning of the 1900s, we can see that the initial impetus for
the formation of the ANC – as an organisational expression of black
nationalism -- derived from a combined "protest" over the lack of political
and economic opportunities of the small (but influential) black petty
bourgeoisie. It was this social force which wanted to find a political and
organisational means to stem the racialised assault on its own specific
class interests – as well, of course, on what they saw as the political and
economic wellbeing of Africans in general.
The majority of this new ANC cadre not only brought with them their
particular class politics but also a heavy dose of Christian (Calvinist)
education and corresponding social mores. This led to a perspective that
incorporated a politics of non-violence and of incorporation in which the
main priority became one of persuading the "civilised" British that the
educated, propertied and "civilised" Africans could be incorporated into
the mainstream of South African society. In other words, as applied to
their own economic interests, the leadership of the early ANC simply
wanted a specific section of the black population to become an integral
part of the capitalist system.
From this point on, BEE was framed by this approach and understanding
but (to varying extents) was mediated by the macro-nationalist politics of